Deciphering Genetic Complexity: Risk Assessment and Treatment Opportunities

Rapid advances in omics technologies are increasingly detailing genomic alterations that may underlie human disease. For the first time in the history of genetics, data availability is no longer a primary limitation in understanding the differences between health and disease. Instead, exploring how the breadth and complexity of human variation impacts risk, treatment and lifespan is one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time.

Addressing this challenge requires that researchers and clinicians come together across disciplines. This fifth Human Genetic Variation and Disease GRC will cover the most important findings emerging at the interface of computational biology, data science, and experimental research in the field of human variation and health. We will focus on participants exchanging and combining expertise to link human genetic variation to disease and to translate that knowledge clinically to inform precision medicine.

The conference will cover new computational and analytical techniques to interpret genetic variation, stratify populations for pharmacogenomics and personalization, identify microbiome and virome contributions, and to review ethical concerns. The program will be organized around broad clinical themes to compare and contrast related advances across fields. Following the guiding GRC principle, participants are encouraged to present new, unpublished work to foster free unhampered discussion.

Through close interactions and lively exchange of ideas, the conference will expose and bridge the state of the art across divergent areas. It will thus guide new hypotheses and accelerate basic and clinical progress in relating genetic variation to human disease.